This is the 2nd of 3 tunes in memory of my father who died recently. It's my version of Through the barricades, originally performed by the group Spandau ballet. If you didn't know what it was about, I'll tell you. It's about the troubles in Northern Ireland.

Check it out.

I mentioned I was going to say a few things about my dad's life, and so I will. I only know a small part of what happened in his life. Still there's enough to mention that will astonish even the most resolute.

My Dad. Part 1

I'll begin with the basic stuff. His birthplace was a place called Hammersmith, in West London. His mum Lily was a loving and kind person, but his father sadly did not live up to that reputation. An Irish waiter by trade. If you can call it a trade. The father used to beat his mother whilst John was looking on. It's no surprise that he had deep seated dislike for him. He didn't stick around for long. His brothers and sisters all share a different surname to him. Fortunately they had a better father. As a child he used to get into many tricky situations. Perhaps an indication of what was to come. Just an indication though. Some of the people he was to mix with in life ended up doing pretty well, and a number of them making quite a name for themselves.
John joined the Navy at a young age. Though he only managed to hold in there for under 4 years before being dismissed. He became well known within the ranks for enjoying a scrap, and as a keen gambler, he used to organise fights with betting included. Throughout his service, and a good number of fights, he was fortunate to lose only one of them. During his service, he opted to take it upon himself to depart from the Navy, before his compulsory term had finished. concealing himself within the ranks of travelling gypsies, and eventually hiding out at his mothers house. This is where the M.P.s finally tracked him down. As they were talking to his mother on the doorstep, John was climbing out of the back window, but he didn't get far before they carted him back into service.

To be continued...

On another note. This is quite exciting for me. I've finally put together my first album. It's titled "Sight Or Sound". As I'm working on a shoestring budget, the album is going out on digital release only. It's been difficult doing everything myself. The performing, mixing mastering and artwork etc. It's helped with the costs though. So it's going to be available in many places including Itunes, Amazon, Napster etc. Not wanting to sound like an anorak, but I was really pleased when I got the barcode for the album. Yipee! It has a global product identity. It's official
From what I can gather, it looks like the first availability will be in about a month. Then it will roll out to other online stores over the next couple of months. I will be updating my blog about it when it happens, and writing about any reviews etc.

Finally, it's those Youtube stats again.
My subscribers have increased to 890. Only 10 off 900.
The channel viewings have passed the 20k landmark, and now stand at 20,672.
The total video views are now 343,712.

My next video is an acoustic cover. The third and final of my dad's favourite songs.